2780Hrs – Pleasant Distractions

With one thing and another time slips by and five days have passed since I did any constructive work on ‘Gleda’.

Last week I had some paid work to do and then I paid a flying visit to Cornwall, drove down to Polperro on Thursday morning and drove back on Friday night. It was a short but thoroughly enjoyable trip, quite surreal in some ways. I left the Midlands on the third day of miserable, cold and wet weather and four hours later arrived Polperro to warm sunshine which lasted right through Friday. It felt like another country.

On Friday we drove to Polruan and hopped the passenger ferry to Fowey. As ever the place looked stunning, sixteen classic gaff-rigged pilot cutters racing out into the bay, the Greenpeace vessel ‘Arctic Sunrise’ anchored in the harbour, yachts, dinghys, fishing vessels and motor boats pottering about and a fishermans choir singing sea shanties infront of the King of Prussia.

A memorable and energising day.

Today I had some welcome guests at the barn. Luke and his girlfriend Paula came up from London to see ‘Gleda’ and chat about the build. They are planning to build a Wharram of their own and after seeing ‘Gleda’ I think it will be a Tiki 38.

It was a real pleasure to talk with folks that share similar dreams of building and sailing and they left me in no doubt that they have what it takes to make it happen. Get those plans bought and get cracking guys!

Whilst I was away a couple of eBay purchases had arrived.

I now have a Simpson Lawrence anchor windlass which I’m going to mount infront of the foremast.

I also have two Lewmar 30 sheet winches. On the plans there is a single winch mounted aft of the foremast to handle both sheets and anchor. I’m not yet sure whether I’ll use that set up or mount the winches further aft so that they are more accessible from the deck pod. Either way I now have them in stock.

In terms of constructive work I’ve continued on the crossbeams today filling the areas of glass that bubbled with filled epoxy. I also spent some time measuring and adjusting the holes for the stainless steel retaining pins as I’d not got them quite right.

Whilst I’ve been away I’ve been mulling over what to do about glassing the sides of the beams. If I’d not already routed the sides of the recesses I might well have used Rogers suggestion of covering them over temporarily but I can’t see that working easily now. It strikes me that glassing the sides won’t add any significant strength, will take a lot of time and materials, and as I’ve said before increase the risk of hidden problems developing.

I’m going to take the advice given by Jean-Paul and Cynthia, I’ll just paint them well and maintain as necessary.

2 Responses

Yes. This is the plan! Get the plans and get the job rolling. After all if you don’t look after yourself nobody will do it for you. It is not an easy path, no doubt about that but one definitely worth the effort!! Thank you once again for having us and lettIng us waste a few hours of your build time